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 INTRODUCTION
u An accurate electric current transducer is a key
component of any power system
instrumentation.
u To measure currents power stations and
substations conventionally employ inductive type
current transformers with core and windings.
u conventional current transformers becomes
more and more bulky and costly .
u The MOCT measures the electric current by
means of Faraday Effect.
u It consist of a sensor head located near the
current carrying conductor, an electronic signal
processing unit and fiber optical cables linking to
these two parts .
u The sensor head consist of only optical
component ; the signal is brought down by fiber
optical cables to the signal processing unit
therefore the insulation structure of an MOCT is
simpler.
u MOCT provide high immunity to electromagnetic
interferences, wider frequency response, large
dynamic range and low outputs which are
compatible with the inputs of analog to digital
converters.
u They are ideal for the interference between
power systems and computer systems.
 MOCT -PRINCIPLE
u MOCT is based on the Faradays effect-
effect-the
orientation of linearly polarized light was
rotated under the influence of the
magnetic field when the light propagated
in a piece of glass, and the rotation angle
was proportional to the intensity of the
magnetic field .
PRINCIPLE
 PRINCIPLE
u Ô ½n VI
ƝI Ɲis the current to be measured,
Ɲ ƞ is the permeability of the material,
Ɲnƞ is the number of turns of the optical path.
u The Faraday effect outlined in eqn is a better
format to apply to an MOCT, because the
rotation angle in this case is directly related to
the enclosed electric current.
u It rejects the magnetic field signals due to
external currents which are normally quite
strong in power system.
u A polarizer is used to convert the randomly
polarized incident light into linearly polarized
light. The orientation of the linearly polarized
light rotates an angle Ô after the light has
passed through the magneto-optical material
because of Faraday Effect. Then another
polarization prism is used as an analyzer, which
is 45 0 oriented with the polarizer, to convert
the orientation variation of the polarized light
into intensity variation of the light with two
outputs, and then these two outputs are send to
photo detectors. The purpose of using the
analyzer is that photo detectors can only detect
the intensity of light, rather than the orientation
of polarizations.
P1 ½ (1 + Sin 2Ô )P0/2
P2 ½ (1 - Sin 2Ô )P0/2
P0 : optical power from the light source,
Ô : the Faraday rotation angle,
P1 and P2 : optical power delivered by the
detectors.
DESIGN
u The optical sensor consists of two separate
clamp-on parts and linearly polarized light is
arranged to pass through the optical glass prism
to pickup the Faraday rotation signal.
u The polarization compensation technique is
applied at each corner of the prisms, so that the
light passing through the prism remains linearly
polarized.
u At the other end of the prism, a silver mirror
reflects the light beam so that light beam comes
back to its sending end via the same route while
accumulating the Faraday rotations.
 the rotation angles from the two halves of the
sensor [Fig.4(a)] are added up in the signal
processing unit so that the total rotation angle
(Ô1+Ô2 ) is the same as the rotation angle Ô
from the optical path shown in Fig4(b), which is
two turns around the conductor.
 [It avoids the use of magnetic material to
concentrate the magnetic field .
it is free from the effect of remanent flux, which
affect the accuracy of the current measurement.
 MAGNETO--OPTICAL SENSOR
MAGNETO
u Almost all transparent material exhibits the
magneto-optical effect or Faraday Effect, but the
effect of some of the material is very
temperature dependent, and they are not
suitable for the sensing material.
u MOCT made out of SF-57 materials can achieve
higher sensitivity.
u the total internal rotation angle is ‰ Ô1+ Ô2 ‰
2 VI
I : current to be measured,
½ 4
x 10-7 H/m
V½7.7 x 102 degrees/Tm at a wavelength of
820nm
u Therefore Ô ½ 1.9 degrees/ KA.
u Different optical fibers are designed for different
usage.
u The single mode fiber has very wide bandwidth-
is essential for communication systems, size.
u large multimode fiber is convenient for collecting
maximum amount of light from the light source,
it suffers from the problem of dispersion which
limits its bandwidth.
u In the situation of power system
instrumentation, only moderate frequency
response is required and in MOCT,
u The more optical power received by the
detectors the better signal to noise ratio can be
achieved. Therefore, the large core multi-mode
optical fiber is used here to transfer the optical
signals to and from the optical sensor
ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT FOR THE
MOCT
u There are two output stages. One stage, which
has 1 KA dynamic range, is for power system
current metering, and other stage, which
operate up to 20 KA, provides power system
current signals for digital relay systems .
u In each part of the device, the sum of the two
receiving channels signals, which have the same
DC bias ˜I0, differenced at junction with a
reference voltage Vref from the power level
adjustment potentiometer.
u An integrator is used to adjust the LED driver
current to maintain 2˜I0 to be the same as the
Vref at the junction.
u The difference of the two receiving channels
signals 2˜I0 (2SinÔ1) and 2˜I0 (2SinÔ2) in each
part of the device are added directly and then
fed through an amplifier for the small signals. At
the same time these two signals are processed
digitally to do a sin-1 calculation on each and
then summed together for the large signal
situation when the non-linearity of the MOCT
can no longer be ignored.
u The ratio responses of the two output stages of
the clamp-on MOCT are designed as 10V/KA and
0.5V/KA and frequency responses are 4KHZ and
40 KHZ respectively.
 O

O 
u The MOCT is designed to operate in a
transparent manner with modern electronic
meters and digital relays, which have been
adopted for a low energy analog signal
interface.
u The design approach is to redefine the interface
point as to input the analog to digital conversion
function used by each of these measurement
systems.
u
 OOO
u No risk of fires and explosions.
u No need to use metallic wires to transfer the
signal and so simpler insulation structure than
conventional current transformer.
u High immunity to electromagnetic interference.
u Wide frequency response and larger dynamic
range.
u Low voltage outputs which are compatible with
the inputs of digital to analog converters.
 OOO
u Temperature and stress induced linear
birefringence in the sensing material
causes error and instability.
u The accuracy of MOCT is so far
insufficient for the use in power systems.



 
u This magneto optical current transducer
eliminates many of the drawbacks of the
conventional current transformers.
u In an conventional current transformers,
there is a chance of saturation of magnetic
field under high current, complicated
insulation and cooling structure, a chance
of electro magnetic interference .